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Original fileArchimedes' Screw Water Pump
Archimedische Schraube (Schneckenpumpe)
About This Work
The image is a black-and-white copperplate engraving depicting a machine for elevating water. A central, inclined cylinder wrapped in a spiral hose (labeled 'D' and 'C') rests on a wooden frame at the base, where a water wheel (labeled 'A' and 'B') drives the mechanism. Water is captured at the bottom via an intake aperture (labeled 'E') and is expelled at the elevated top point ('G'). The diagram uses individual letters to identify functional components of the machine for the purpose of technical instruction.
This image originates from Robert Fludd's 'Utriusque Cosmi Maioris scilicet et Minoris metaphysica, physica, atque technica Historia' (1617–1621), a key text in seventeenth-century natural philosophy that blended mechanical engineering with macrocosmic-microcosmic theory.
Inscriptions(Latin)
DE VARIIS MACHINIS. 459 nis motu impulsum aquam sursum in hortum supereminentem elevabat; Ejus autem descriptio sequitur. A.A. est rota aquaria, cujus motu rotula B. in extremitate arboris C.C.C. affixa movetur; atque hujus etiam actione circumvolvitur arbor sive axis C.C.C. cum qua vertitur simul canalis sive fistula D.D.D. ex corio satis duro & spisso conflata, qua spiraliter, ut vides, axem ambit. E.est ventile in gutture majoris extremitatis canalis deorsum & in aqua submersa collocatum; quod facilioris intellectus causa litera F. depinximus. Hujus autem usus est, ut aqua ingrediens per foramen in canalis gutture non recedat, quousque altera axis volutione, osculum majori aquæ pondere repletum, pondus minus suo onere per superiora detrudat. Major enim aquæ quantitas continetur inter os corii & ejus guttur quam inter guttur sive ventile & extremitatem G. Atque hinc est, quod continua præponderatione aquæ in orificio fistulæ continuam etiam inducit aquæ expuitionem in parte superiori. Macrocosmi Tractatus Secundus. Mmm 2 CAP.
Translation
ON VARIOUS MACHINES. 459 ...impelled by this motion it elevated water upward into an overhanging garden; the description of which follows. A.A. is the water wheel, by whose motion the small wheel B. fixed to the end of the shaft C.C.C. is moved; and by this action the shaft or axis C.C.C. is also rotated, with which the channel or pipe D.D.D., constructed of sufficiently hard and thick leather, is turned, which spirally surrounds the axis, as you see. E. is the valve in the throat of the larger end of the channel, placed downward and submerged in the water; which, for the sake of easier understanding, we have depicted with the letter F. The use of this is so that the water entering through the opening in the throat of the channel does not recede, until by another rotation of the axis, the mouth, filled with the greater weight of water, pushes the lesser weight by its burden upward. For a greater quantity of water is contained between the mouth of the leather and its throat than between the throat or valve and the extremity G. And hence it is, that by the continuous preponderance of water in the orifice of the pipe, it induces also a continuous expulsion of water in the upper part. Second Treatise of the Macrocosm. Mmm 2 CHAPTER.
Connected Texts
Robert Fludd, Utriusque Cosmi...
This print is an illustration from the second volume of Robert Fludd's encyclopedic work on the nature of the cosmos and human technology.
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Provenance & Source
Object
engraving
laid paper
Baroque
German
scientific
Digital Source
Wikimedia Commons · Public domain
530 × 820 px
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